Lisa Ray Instagram – When @aninditaghose asked me to write a tribute for @wendellrodricks I was an emotional mess and I wrote an overwrought, stream of consciousness piece that was more about me and how I was feeling. Anindita gently pointed out how deeply ‘personal’ the piece was and somehow, I got the message. I meditated and sat with my emotions, watching the playback of so many moments of joy and deep connection with my Wendelly. Then I went back to my laptop and wrote from a place that I know Wendell would approve: from nostalgia mixed with a dash of melancholy and rhapsodic fun; the feeling I get from watching a Wong Kar Wai film. This is the piece. Wendell came to me in a dream last night. We sat on a covered bench in Colvale, where we had once sought shelter from a sudden downpour on an evening stroll. He talked to me about design ideas he’d had over the years, his hands sculpting the air, laughing bawdily. Then he looked at me with a bemused expression as if to say: ‘why so sad, I’m still here.’ He knew he had passed onto another realm, and I didn’t want the dream to end. I pressed my eyes tightly together and pushed away urgent wisps of consciousness. But of course I woke. My heart was aching a little but I understood something vital has been transmitted; something that can never be taken away. . . ‘I suspect so much of Wendell has seeped into the way I see the world; his appreciation of the expansiveness of life. This notion that what we do is not a job or career, but a calling. A belief in living out our human expression with gratitude and gumption. The confidence to push against the grain.’ @live_mint @livemintlounge @wendellrodricks